SECT. 48. The trustees may expend any money given for the purpose, in erecting houses or other buildings on the lands of the state at Lancaster for increasing the accommodation of the industrial school, plans therefor being first approved by the governor and council; but the whole number of such houses shall not exceed six. SECT. 49. When a child, having a settlement in this commonwealth, is committed to the state primary school under the provisions of section twenty-two, the state board shall give written notice of such commitment to the overseers of the poor of the place of settlement; and the overseers, with the assent of the state board, may remove such child to the place of settlement, and the place of settlement shall pay one dollar a week, from the date of such notice, for the support of the child in the school, which sum shall be paid to or recovered by the treasurer of the commonwealth. SECT. 50. The state board may discharge from custody any child committed to its care under the provisions of section twenty two. SECT. 51. When a person having a settlement in this commonwealth is committed to the industrial or reform school, the trustees shall give written notice thereof to the overseers of the poor of the town or city of settlement, which town or city shall pay for his support in such school one dollar a week from the date of such notice, to be paid to the treasurer of the commonwealth, or recovered by him through the state board. Any sum so paid may be recovered by such town or city of any parent, kindred or guardian liable by law to maintain such person. SECT. 52. Every judge of the probate court or commissioner before whom any child is brought under the provisions of sections twenty and twenty-six shall make a brief record of his doings in the premises, and transmit the same, with all the papers in the case, to the superior court for criminal business in the county in which such proceedings are had; and the clerk thereof shall file and preserve the same in his office. State board all children annually to visit indentured by 1879, 291, § 3. SECT. 53. The state board shall as often as once a year visit all children maintained wholly or in part by the state, or who have been indentured or placed in charge of a person by any state institution, board or officer of the commonwealth, or under any 1871, 370, 2. provision hereof, and all minor children supported at the expense of any city or town, and shall inquire into the condition of such children, and make such other investigations in relation thereto as it may think fit; and for this purpose it may have private interviews with such children at any time. State board may cancel indentures, or transfer child, when 1870, 359, § 3. 1871, 370, § 2. 1879, 291, § 3. to be notified before child is 1870, 359, § 4. 1879, 291, § 3. SECT. 54. When the state board is of opinion that a child so indentured or placed in charge of a person cannot, with advantage to the child, be longer so held, it may cancel the indenture or contract, by giving notice as provided in section forty, and return such child to the institution from which he was indentured or taken ; or, on application of such institution, the state board may transfer him to any other institution maintained by the commonwealth for the support or reformation of children, or indenture him to some other person, or otherwise provide for his maintenance during minority, or for a less time. The cancellation of the indenture or contract shall not operate as a discharge of the minor under any sentence or order of commitment. No minor child supported at the expense of a city or town shall be removed therefrom without the consent of the overseers of the poor thereof. SECT. 55. No child shall be indentured, adopted or placed in indentured, etc. charge of any person from a state institution until notice of an application therefor has been given to the state board, and its report in writing, made after investigation into the propriety thereof, has been filed with such institution. And all applications for the release or discharge of any children so indentured or placed in charge shall in like manner be given to the state board for its report. to seek out suitable persons Trustees may pay two hundred dollars annually to aid destitute girls. 1863, Res. 56. SECT. 56. The state board shall seek out suitable persons who are willing to adopt, take charge of, educate and maintain children arrested for offences, committed to a state institution, abandoned or neglected, and give notice thereof to the institutions, boards, officers or persons having authority so to dispose of said children. SECT. 57. The trustees may annually pay, out of the sum appropriated for the current expenses of the industrial school, a sum not exceeding two hundred dollars in aiding destitute and deserving girls who have left the school and are out of employment. [Chapter 127.] AN ACT RELATING TO JUVENILE OFFENDERS. Be it enacted, etc., as follows: SECTION 1. No court or magistrate shall commit any child under twelve years of age to a jail or house of correction, to the house of industry of the city of Boston, or to the state workhouse, in default of bail, for non-payment of fine or costs, or both, or for punishment for any offence not punishable by imprisonment for life, of which said child may have been adjudged guilty. SECT. 2. Whenever any child under twelve years of age is held by any court or magistrate for examination or trial, and said child is unable to furnish bail for such examination or trial, such court or magistrate shall commit said child to the custody of the state board of health, lunacy and charity; and said board is authorized to make all proper provisions for the safe-keeping of said child, and for his presence at the examination or trial for which he is held, at the time and place named in the mittimus. SECT. 3. When a complaint is made to any court or magistrate of any offence, not punishable by imprisonment for life, committed by a child under twelve years of age, such court or magistrate, if an examination is deemed necessary, shall, in the first instance, issue a summons to said child, requiring his presence before such court or magistrate at the time and place named in said summons; and if said child fails then and there to appear as directed in said summons, such court or magistrate shall then issue a warrant for the arrest of said child. SECT. 4. The provisions of this act shall not apply to either of the offences mentioned in section ten of chapter forty-eight of the Public Statutes. [Approved March 28, 1882. OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S Office, SIR, In answer to your inquiry, forwarded to me by his excellency the governor, of Oct. 20, I am of the opinion that: The only children who are under the control of the inspectors and superintendent of the state primary school are the pupils of that school. The pupils of that school are those children who have been admitted by the board of state charities under Stat. 1866, chap. 209, sects. 4 and 5, or by the concurrent action of that board, and of his excellency the governor, under sects. 5 and 6 of the same act. These children can become pupils of the school for the sole purpose of being maintained, taught, exercised and employed (Stat. 1866, chap. 209, sect. 1). They can remain pupils of the school for no other purpose. It is made the duty of the superintendent, and of the other officers, to provide places in families for pupils when discharged from the school (Stat. 1866, chap. 209, sect. 7). The board of state charities alone can discharge a pupil from the school (sect. 5, same act). The inspectors and the board of state charities together may indenture pupils (Stat. 1866, chap. 209, sect. 8; Gen. Stats., chap. 71, sect. 33; Gen. Stats., chap. 111, sect. 4) : consequently no children can be inden tured or placed in a family without having been discharged by the board of state charities. A child so indentured and so placed passes from the control of both the board and of the inspectors. In answer to your first question, I am of opinion that children so indentured, or so placed, remain in the charge and under the control of neither the board of state charities nor of the inspector. In answer to your second question, I am of opinion that the power of the state board of state charities to discharge, under Stat. 1866, chap. 209, sect. 5, extends to pupils who are pupils of the state primary school, and under Stats. 1863, chap. 240, sect. 4, to all inmates of all charitable institutions and lunatic hospitals, and is confined to such pupils and to such inmates. Pupils who have been indentured or placed must have ceased to be members of either of these classes, and cannot be discharged from those positions by that board. As to your third question, inasmuch as the discharge of the child from the school is an indispensable requisite of its having been indentured or placed, I am of opinion that that discharge cannot remit the duty of the visiting agent as to those children under Stat. 1870, chap. 359, sect. 2. The object of those visits will become manifest by a reference to Gen. Stats., chap. 111, sect. 9; and Stat. 1866, chap. 209, sect. 8, as to indentured children, and to Stat. 1866, sects. 4 and 5, as to children placed. Yours respectfully, CHAS. R. TRAIN. APPENDIX TO PART THIRD. [The following Act, passed in 1882, imposes no duties on the State board, but will lead to the return of statistical information of much value concerning the private charities of Massachusetts, which are of great extent and variety.] CHAPTER 217. AN ACT PROVIDING FOR RETURNS OF PROPERTY HELD FOR LITERARY, BENEVOLENT, CHARITABLE OR SCIENTIFIC PURPOSES. Be it enacted, etc., as follows: SECTION 1. The notice to be given by assessors under the provisions of section thirty-eight of chapter eleven of the Public Statutes shall require all persons and corporations to bring in to the assessors, within a time therein specified, not later than the first day of July in the then current year, true lists of all real and personal estate held by such persons and corporations respectively for literary, benevolent, charitable or scientific purposes on the first day of May in said year, together with statements of the amounts of all receipts and expenditures by such persons or corporations for said purposes during the year next preceding said first day of May; such lists and statements to be in such detail as may be required by the tax commissioner: provided, that the assessors may accept any such list and statement after the time so specified if they shall be satisfied that there was good cause for the delay; but no list or statement shall be received after the first day of August in the then current year. SECT. 2. If any person or corporation wilfully omits to bring in the list and statement of real and personal estate as herein required, the estate so held shall not be exempt from taxation in the then current year under the provisions of the third clause of section five of said chapter. SECT. 3. The tax commissioner shall cause to be printed and distributed to assessors suitable printed forms for such lists and |